Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn Technology Co. Ltd., which manufactures the Apple iPad, has received federal tax benefits for producing tablets in Brazil. The manufacturer was given reduced import tax rate for tablet components.
The determination, the country’s official gazette reported Wednesday, provides for exemption or reduction of the IPI (the Industrialized products Tax), PIS and Cofins for companies investing in research and development of technology products. The rule will apply to tablets with touchscreens, no keyboard and weighing less than 750 grams.
Other products covered under the relaxed tax rules include power cables, instruction manuals and other such products, the gazette informed.
The expectation is that Foxconn will start producing devices – especially the iPad from Apple – in the factory in Jundiai, São Paulo. At several times, the former Minister of Science has commented about manufacturing iPads in Brazil. However, until now the company has not produced any Apple tablets in the country.
It is estimated that, between 2010 and 2011, Foxconn has invested $300 million to build its third factory in the city, aimed at producing Apple devices in a plant expected to employ for 1,400 workers.
After a ministerial reform made by the president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, Mercadante was named minister of education, replacing Fernando Haddad. With the departure of Mercadante, the current president of the Brazilian Space Agency, Marco Antonio Raupp, assumes the leadership of the Science and Technology.
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